Monday, March 19, 2012

Blog Entry 3: "The Allegory of the Cave" Summary

How will you describe the difference between, the feeling of knowing the truth and not knowing? Socrates, the inventor of Philosophy was asked a similar question by one of his pupils. He could not answer this question with just simple words. Socrates used  an allegory of a cave to help his student visualize and have an idea of what the answer is. He describes a story of a group of prisoners tied by their neck, looking towards a wall inside a cave since their birth, there only reality to there knowledge was shadows, this was caused by fire and the people passing along the wall. Furthermore, he goes on describing how one of this prisoners is set free and realizes that his life inside the cave was not the true reality. Socrates describes the process of this free prisoner adapting to the light outside the cave. This tale is discussed with one of his student accompanied by questions, stimulating this student to think about the meaning of the allegory in real life situations. Socrates finalize the story, narrating that this free prisoner, now accustomed to the light outside the cave, one day decides to go back, with intentions to show what he now knows to the other prisoner, however fails to convince them about the truth, about the "Light", he is threaten to death by those prisoners which remained inside the cave. They did not want to listen to, those inside the cave did not know better.  The free enlightened prisoner now knowing the truth ends up preferring the light and no longer be in the darkness.


Personally, in this point of my life, it is difficult for me to know with certainty my stage compared to Socrates cave allegory. However, I believe to be in the phase of "walking out into the light" because it is in my main interest to learn and receive the highest education as possible, being in college and studying points me to the direction of where the "light" is. I'm motivated in gaining experience, achieving my career and personal goals. I like to travel and learn about new places around the world, traveling to different country's I consider that opens your mind and provides a valuable experience which expose people to different cultures and reality. I also am into reading books (not counting college course books), where I can find the truth and the answers of many life questions. Another sphere where Ive always been interested since a small kid has been "History", my favorite subject of study. I think is very important to know the past, where we come from, what has been before us and so on. I'm convinced it is indispensable to have knowledge of history at the moment of taking decisions in various aspect of our life, because I had learned that the past tends to repeat itself. Still I had not arrived to the "Light", I have a long way to go, many objectives to accomplish and I wont stop till I am out of the "Dark".

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